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Tribune News Service

Scientific breakthroughs in one disease do not always shed light on treating other diseases. But that has been the surprising journey of a research team from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, in the US state of Minnesota.
After identifying a sugar molecule that cancer cells use on their surfaces to hide from the immune system, the researchers have found that the same molecule may eventually help in the treatment of type 1 diabetes, once known as juvenile diabetes.
Type 1 diabetes is a chronic autoimmune condition in which the immune system mistakenly attacks pancreatic beta cells that produce insulin.
The disease is caused by genetic and other factors, and affects an estimated 1.3 million people in the United States. In 2021, an estimated 8.4 million people worldwide were living with it.

In their studies, the Mayo Clinic researchers took a cancer mechanism and turned it on its head.
Cancer cells use different methods to evade immune response, including coating themselves in a sugar molecule known as sialic acid.
The researchers found in a preclinical model of type 1 diabetes that it is possible to dress up beta cells with the same sugar molecule, enabling the immune system to tolerate the cells.
“Our findings show that it’s possible to engineer beta cells that do not prompt an immune response,” says immunology researcher Virginia Shapiro, principal investigator of the study published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.
A few years ago, Shapiro’s team showed that an enzyme known as ST8Sia6, which increases sialic acid on the surface of tumour cells, helps tumour cells appear as though they are not foreign entities to be targeted by the immune system.
“The expression of this enzyme basically ‘sugar coats’ cancer cells and can help protect an abnormal cell from a normal immune response,” Shapiro says.
“We wondered if the same enzyme might also protect a normal cell from an abnormal immune response.”

The team first established proof of concept in an artificially induced model of diabetes.
In the current study, the team looked at preclinical models that are known for the spontaneous development of type 1 diabetes, most closely approximating the process that occurs in patients. Researchers engineered beta cells in the models to produce the ST8Sia6 enzyme.
In the preclinical models, the team found that the engineered cells were 90 per cent effective in preventing the development of type 1 diabetes. The beta cells that are typically destroyed by the immune system in type 1 diabetes were preserved.
Importantly, the researchers also found the immune response to the engineered cells appears to be highly specific, says Justin Choe, first author of that publication.
“Though the beta cells were spared, the immune system remained intact,” Choe says.
The researchers were able to see active B- and T-cells and evidence of an autoimmune response against another disease process.
“We found that the enzyme specifically generated tolerance against autoimmune rejection of the beta cell, providing local and quite specific protection against type 1 diabetes.”

No cure currently exists for type 1 diabetes, and treatment involves using synthetic insulin to regulate blood sugar or, for some people, undergoing a transplant of pancreatic islet cells, which include the much-needed beta cells.
Because transplantation involves immunosuppression of the entire immune system, Shapiro aims to explore using the engineered beta cells in transplantable islet cells with the goal of ultimately improving therapy for patients.
“A goal would be to provide transplantable cells without the need for immunosuppression,” says Shapiro. “Though we’re still in the early stages, this study may be one step toward improving care.”
The research was funded by grants from the US National Institutes of Health.
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New breakthrough offers hope to type 1 diabetics as study reveals way to protect cells

No cure currently exists for type 1 diabetes, and treatment involves using synthetic insulin to regulate blood sugar, or, for some people, undergoing a transplant of pancreatic islet cells.
Photo: Shutterstock

A molecule that seems to help cancer cells evade detection shows promise in protecting insulin-producing cells from autoimmune attack in type 1 diabetes. Photo: Shutterstock

No cure currently exists for type 1 diabetes. Photo: Shutterstock

Immunology researcher Virginia Shapiro was the principal investigator of the study. Photo: Mayo Clinic

Type 1 diabetes is a condition in which your body’s immune system mistakenly attacks and destroys the cells in your pancreas that produce insulin. Photo: Shutterstock

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Lifestyle

Health & Wellness

Health

US researchers believe a newly found sugar molecule used by cancer cells to evade the immune system may also protect insulin-producing cells


US researchers believe a newly found sugar molecule used by cancer cells to evade the immune system may also protect insulin-producing cells.


Disease

Medicine

Cancer

New breakthrough offers hope to type 1 diabetics as study reveals way to protect cells

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}US researchers believe a newly found sugar molecule used by cancer cells to evade the immune system may also protect insulin-producing cells

US researchers believe a newly found sugar molecule used by cancer cells to evade the immune system may also protect insulin-producing cells